Gary hooper

[BroadstairsR 2,138]

I blow hot and cold about Hooper. I, like others, was desperate for his signature on that infamous last day of the last window but cooled after reading all the negativety about the quality of the SPL on here and other detrimental stuff about the player. The signing of RVW doused my interest completely.

 

However, having never seen him play before to my memory, I watched the Scottish Cup Final. I was very impressed.

 

Other telling factors here were Hughton''s keenness to get him on board and the fact that Lennon seems desperate to keep the player.

 

Hooper want EPL football and fancies himself in with a shout for England. If we can pick him up for about £5m I would say that this could be the perfect fit for both parties.

[pete_norw 0]

[quote user="star_manic"]in January City tried to buy Hooper. why? because CH must have rated him pretty highly. and i think nearly all Canary fans realise that identifying transfer targets is an extremely high quality of CH. if we go in for Hooper this Summer i have every faith that he will do well for us.
[/quote]

I only hope if we do go in for him we don''t spend over the odds he is not worth more than £4mil, and Lennon shot himself in the foot by trying to hold clubs to Ransom. Just like Sporting tried with RVW they wanted £20mil for him at first.  but Personally I think we have better players than Hooper out there. 

[Chip20 69]

Gah! I don''t get the ''Celtic/Lennon made a mistake nonsense'' that gets peddled here sometimes. They didn''t want to sell him (unless for truly massive amounts of dosh) and so he didn''t get sold. Where''s the ''mistake''?

[Jim Smith 2,314]

I know this is a typical "mate of a mate" story but a mate of mine told me a few weeks ago that a friend of his who knows some football agents quite well had been told by one of them that Hooper to us for £5m is a done deal this summer.

I am not in any way vouching for the accuracy of this story but just passing on what i was told.

Given the level of interest we obviously had in January I would be amazed if we were not still in the hunt for him now we have secured safety and given also that we still probably need another striker in.

[Lets be aving you! 0]

"I am not in any way vouching for the accuracy of this story but just passing on what i was told."

 

I feel certain that Tom will usefully fill in any gaps in our insight. When he''s not out scouting, of course.

[Jim Smith 2,314]

I know that me saying that and not providing a named source with documentary evidence will enrage some but that''s how it is. Not proclaiming to be in the know was just something told to me in passing a while back. Will be interesting to see if it happens or not. I think he and RVW or Holt could be a good combo, certainly a bit more potent than any of our current striker combinations.

[Salopian 1]

How highly does CH rate Hooper?  He certainly went to some lengths to sign Hooper in the last window. At that stage he had enquired about RvW but been given a definite "not before the end of the season!" I think that Hooper became the main target when Graham had decided to seek humiliation with Sunderland.

 

For all we know, he was rebuffed in other directions, and so landed with Becchio and Kamara. If this analysis is even part way true, it seems that CH rates Hooper as at best second behind RvW. If so, and unless he has already made the decision to play usually with 2 strikers, would he want to pay an inflated price for Hooper to merely park him on the bench? Just as important, would Hooper want to come on this basis?

 

All we know is that, in the absence of major misfortune, RvW will be our main striker and that he is more than happy to play as a lone striker. I hope that we sign another striker, but arguably someone who has not yet made the grade but has buckets of promise, with Becchio (and Holt?) as back up.

[BroadstairsR 2,138]

We went into last season with a forward line of Holt, Morison, Jackson and Martin.

 

To go into next season with Holt, RVW, Hooper and Becchio would be a massive, massive improvement.

[Rock The Boat 1,326]

Having seen neither Hooper nor RVW play, would you guys say their styles of play were complementary, the same, or do they offer something different?

I''m interested to know whether Hooper and RVW would work well together if we went with two up front, or do we need Holt in there as a target man with one of these guys?

Another thing, is Becchio ever going to play for us?

[Jim Smith 2,314]

I''ve not seen a great deal of either of them to be honest but from what little I have seen Hooper is more of a finisher or goal poacher who plays on the shoulder of the last defender whilst RVW is quite good in the air and i suspect likes the ball played into his feet as well so potentially they appear to have potential to play together.

Having said that i''m probably completely wrong and they are both nothing like I have described!

[......and Smith must score. 1,336]

[quote user="Jim Smith"]I know that me saying that and not providing a named source with documentary evidence will enrage some but that''s how it is. Not proclaiming to be in the know was just something told to me in passing a while back. Will be interesting to see if it happens or not. I think he and RVW or Holt could be a good combo, certainly a bit more potent than any of our current striker combinations.[/quote]To be honest I''d hazard a guess that you''re more likely to be accurate than a certain TC is on here, Jim.

[Sussexyellow 55]

[quote user="Rock The Boat"]

Having seen neither Hooper nor RVW play, would you guys say their styles of play were complementary, the same, or do they offer something different?

I''m interested to know whether Hooper and RVW would work well together if we went with two up front, or do we need Holt in there as a target man with one of these guys?

Another thing, is Becchio ever going to play for us?

[/quote]

Becchio is a squad player but will probably get his chance at some point. As we saw last season Hughton does not rush players back from injury so could get a few games if and when the time comes. I would also expect to see a few end of game cameos.

[Kangaroo Court 0]

[quote user="Sussexyellow"][quote user="Rock The Boat"]

Having seen neither Hooper nor RVW play, would you guys say their styles of play were complementary, the same, or do they offer something different?

I''m interested to know whether Hooper and RVW would work well together if we went with two up front, or do we need Holt in there as a target man with one of these guys?

Another thing, is Becchio ever going to play for us?

[/quote]

Becchio is a squad player but will probably get his chance at some point. As we saw last season Hughton does not rush players back from injury so could get a few games if and when the time comes. I would also expect to see a few end of game cameos.

[/quote]Has anyone yet worked out why Hughton likes to bring on a striker for a striker in injury time?

[Mervmeister 18]

The sun today mentioned that we have had a 7.1m bid turned down for Hooper. Hull are also in the race for him.

If 7.1m was turned down, then surely he aint worth that kinda money?

[crabbycanary 2]

Where''s IrishCelt? What''s occuring?

[Hackedoff 0]

Hahaha Hull. They could never compete against a big club like Norwich.

[pete_norw 0]

[quote user="Mervmeister"]The sun today mentioned that we have had a 7.1m bid turned down for Hooper. Hull are also in the race for him. If 7.1m was turned down, then surely he aint worth that kinda money?[/quote]

Lennon has been reported to have said His  top priority is to get Hooper to sign a new improved contract, thats on the Latest Sky transfer news

 

[chicken 0]

[quote user="pete_norw"]

[quote user="Mervmeister"]The sun today mentioned that we have had a 7.1m bid turned down for Hooper. Hull are also in the race for him. If 7.1m was turned down, then surely he aint worth that kinda money?[/quote]

Lennon has been reported to have said His  top priority is to get Hooper to sign a new improved contract, thats on the Latest Sky transfer news

 

[/quote]

As mentioned elsewhere, the Sun ''rumour'' looks exactly like the info that came out at the end of the January transfer window. If there is a reason for it it may be to up the anti with contract talks with Celtic.

I honestly don''t think Hooper is worth £7.1million.

I think that represents a huge gamble.

I''d rather get in two strikers that are a gamble for the same money. One being around 19/20 from Europe, so they don''t count towards the squad total, and can be developed.

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

According to the Glasgow Herald Celtic have confirmed they are interested in a Vitoria Guimarães striker.